Stash Scheduler

coffeemonkey · May 2, 2026, 1:41pm


	Summary	Schedule automatic library scans with an optional identify pass after each scan.
	Repository	https://github.com/stashapp/CommunityScripts/tree/main/plugins/stash-scheduler
	Source URL	https://stashapp.github.io/CommunityScripts/stable/index.yml
	Install	How to install a plugin?

Stash Scheduler Plugin

A plugin for Stash that automatically runs library scans on a schedule (hourly, daily, or weekly), with an optional identify pass after each scan.

Features

Schedule scans at hourly, daily, or weekly intervals
Configure the hour of day (and day of week for weekly)
Optionally run an Identify task automatically after each scan completes
Identify is skipped safely if the scan fails, is cancelled, or no job ID is returned
Run Now task for instant manual trigger (useful for testing)
Auto-start on system boot via systemd, Windows startup, or a cron job (see below)
All settings managed through Stash’s built-in plugin settings UI — no config files to edit

Requirements

Stash v0.17.0 or later
Python 3.8+ (must be available as python3 in your system PATH)
pip packages: apscheduler and stashapp-tools (see Installation below)
curl (only needed if you use the auto-start scripts)

Installation

1 — Copy the plugin folder

Copy the entire stash-scheduler/ directory into your Stash plugins folder:

<Stash data directory>/plugins/stash-scheduler/

The final layout should look like:

plugins/
└── stash-scheduler/
    ├── stash-scheduler.yml
    ├── stash_scheduler.py
    ├── requirements.txt
    ├── startup/
    │   ├── autostart.sh        (Linux/macOS)
    │   ├── autostart.bat       (Windows)
    │   └── stash-scheduler.service  (systemd)
    └── README.md

Your Stash data directory is shown under Settings → System.
Common locations: ~/.stash (Linux/macOS) or C:\Users\<you>\.stash (Windows).

2 — Install Python dependencies

Open a terminal and run:

pip install apscheduler "stashapp-tools>=0.2.40"

Or install from the requirements file:

pip install -r /path/to/plugins/stash-scheduler/requirements.txt

3 — Reload plugins in Stash

In Stash, go to Settings → Plugins and click Reload Plugins. “Stash Scheduler” will appear in the list.

Note on auto-start: After dropping the plugin into the plugins/ folder, the scheduler does not start automatically — Stash’s plugin system has no built-in startup hook. You must either start it manually each time (Settings → Tasks → Start Scheduler) or configure OS-level auto-start using the scripts in startup/ (see the Auto-start on boot section). The systemd unit is the most complete option, as it covers Stash restarts as well as system boot.

Configuration

Open Settings → Plugins → Stash Scheduler and set your preferences:

Setting	Description	Default
Scan Frequency	`hourly`, `daily`, or `weekly`	`daily`
Time of Day (HH:MM)	Time to run the scan in 24-hour `HH:MM` format. Used by Daily and Weekly; ignored for Hourly.	`02:00`
Day of Week	Day to scan when Frequency is Weekly. Use `mon`, `tue`, `wed`, `thu`, `fri`, `sat`, or `sun`.	`sun`
Timezone	IANA timezone name for interpreting Time of Day and Day of Week. Examples: `America/New_York`, `Europe/London`, `Asia/Tokyo`. Leave blank for UTC.	`UTC`
Run Identify After Scan	When enabled, runs an Identify task after each scan finishes successfully.	`false`
Scan Completion Timeout (minutes)	Max time to wait for the scan before giving up on Identify.	`120`
Limit to Paths	Restrict the scan (and the follow-up Identify) to specific directories. One path per line, or comma-separated. Leave blank for the full library.	(full library)
Generate Covers	Generate cover images for scenes during scan.	`false`
Generate Video Previews	Generate video preview clips during scan.	`false`
Generate Image Previews	Generate image preview strips during scan.	`false`
Generate Sprites	Generate sprite sheets (seek-bar previews) during scan.	`false`
Generate Video Phashes	Generate perceptual hashes for video files (duplicate detection).	`false`
Generate Image Phashes	Generate perceptual hashes for image files (duplicate detection).	`false`
Generate Image Thumbnails	Generate thumbnails for image files during scan.	`false`
Generate Image Clip Previews	Generate animated clip previews for image gallery files.	`false`
Force Rescan	Rescan all files even if modification time is unchanged. Useful after Stash upgrades.	`false`

Timezone configuration example

To run a daily scan at 2:00 AM New York time:

Scan Frequency:   daily
Time of Day:      02:00
Timezone:         America/New_York

To run a weekly scan at 3:30 AM London time every Sunday:

Scan Frequency:   weekly
Time of Day:      03:30
Day of Week:      sun
Timezone:         Europe/London

A full list of valid timezone names is available at

Note: If the Timezone field is left blank or set to an unrecognised value, the scheduler falls back to UTC and logs a warning.

Starting the Scheduler

The scheduler runs as a long-lived task inside Stash. You can start it manually or configure it to start automatically on system boot (recommended).

Manual start

Go to Settings → Tasks.
Under Stash Scheduler, click Start Scheduler.
The task will appear as running and stay active until you stop it or restart Stash.

Auto-start on boot (recommended)

Because Stash restarts the plugin process after each Stash restart, auto-start scripts are the most reliable way to ensure the scheduler is always running. Choose the method that fits your setup:

Linux — systemd (recommended — handles Stash restarts automatically)

The systemd unit uses BindsTo=stash.service, which means it stops when Stash stops and starts when Stash starts. This covers both the initial system boot and any subsequent Stash restarts — ensuring the scheduler is always running as long as Stash is running.

# 1. Make the startup script executable
chmod +x ~/.stash/plugins/stash-scheduler/startup/autostart.sh

# 2. Copy the systemd unit to the system directory
sudo cp ~/.stash/plugins/stash-scheduler/startup/stash-scheduler.service \
        /etc/systemd/system/stash-scheduler.service

# 3. Edit the unit file — set your Stash unit name, URL, and plugin path
#    Find your Stash unit name with:  systemctl list-units | grep -i stash
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/stash-scheduler.service

# 4. Enable and start the unit
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable stash-scheduler.service
sudo systemctl start stash-scheduler.service

The key settings inside the unit file:

BindsTo=stash.service        # restart this unit whenever Stash restarts
After=stash.service          # wait for Stash to start before trying to connect
Restart=on-failure           # retry if the connection script fails
STASH_URL=http://localhost:9999
PLUGIN_DIR=/path/to/.stash/plugins/stash-scheduler
# Uncomment to enable API key auth:
# STASH_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

Linux / macOS — cron @reboot

crontab -e

Add this line (adjust paths):

@reboot sleep 30 && /path/to/plugins/stash-scheduler/startup/autostart.sh >> /tmp/stash-scheduler-autostart.log 2>&1

The sleep 30 gives Stash time to start before the script tries to connect.

Windows — Startup folder

Press Win + R, type shell:startup, press Enter.
Create a shortcut to startup\autostart.bat in that folder.
The script will run each time you log in.

Alternatively, use Task Scheduler to trigger autostart.bat on system startup (without needing a user session):

Trigger: At startup
Action: Start C:\path\to\plugins\stash-scheduler\startup\autostart.bat
Check: Run whether user is logged in or not

Docker / custom entrypoint

Add the following to your Docker entrypoint or startup script, after Stash starts:

/app/plugins/stash-scheduler/startup/autostart.sh http://localhost:9999

Testing Your Settings

Without waiting for the next scheduled run:

Go to Settings → Tasks.
Under Stash Scheduler, click Run Scan Now.

This triggers a scan (and identify, if enabled) immediately and marks itself complete when done.

How It Works

System boots → autostart script runs → polls until Stash is ready
                                              │
                                              ▼
                               Calls runPluginTask via GraphQL
                               to start "Start Scheduler" task
                                              │
                                              ▼
stash_scheduler.py reads plugin settings from Stash API
                                              │
                                              ▼
APScheduler registers a cron job (hourly / daily / weekly)
                                              │
                        (fires at each scheduled time)
                                              │
                                              ▼
               metadataScan mutation → Stash starts a full library scan
                                              │
                        ┌─────────────────────┴──────────────────────┐
                        │                                            │
               run_identify = false                        run_identify = true
                        │                                            │
                       done                    Poll job queue until scan finishes
                                               or timeout elapses
                                                          │
                                               ┌──────────┴──────────┐
                                               │                     │
                                         Scan succeeded         Scan failed /
                                               │                 timed out /
                                               ▼               no job ID
                                  metadataIdentify mutation    → Identify skipped
                                  (uses Settings → Identify    (logged as warning)
                                   sources & options)

About Identify sources

The Identify step uses whatever sources you have configured in Settings → Metadata → Identify (e.g., Stash-box connections, scrapers). If no sources are configured there, the identify step will be skipped and a warning will appear in the Stash log.

Identify is also skipped if:

The scan returns no trackable job ID
The scan fails or is cancelled
The scan exceeds the configured timeout

Logs

All activity is written to the Stash log. To view it:

Go to Settings → Logs (or the Stash log panel).
Look for lines prefixed with [Stash Scheduler].

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Plugin doesn’t appear after Reload	Check that `stash-scheduler.yml` is in the correct folder and YAML syntax is valid.
`ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'apscheduler'`	Run `pip install apscheduler stashapp-tools`.
`Could not connect to Stash`	Make sure Stash is running and accessible.
Identify is skipped every run	Go to Settings → Metadata → Identify and add at least one scraper or Stash-box source.
Identify skipped with “no job ID” warning	This is a safety measure — the scan still ran. It can happen on older Stash versions that don’t return a job ID for the scan mutation.
Scan runs but Identify never starts	Increase Scan Completion Timeout if your library is large.
Auto-start script says “Stash not available”	Increase the `sleep` delay before calling the script, or raise `MAX_WAIT` inside `autostart.sh`.
Schedule fires at wrong time	Check the Timezone setting. Set it to your local IANA timezone (e.g. `America/Chicago`) so the Time of Day is interpreted correctly.

Version History

Version	Notes
0.6.0	Added “Limit to Paths” setting — scan and identify can now be restricted to specific directories
0.5.0	Fixed identify-after-scan (null jobQueue crash); added 9 scan generation flag settings (covers, previews, sprites, phashes, thumbnails, clip previews, force rescan)
0.4.0	Added Check Status task; daemon logs written to file (`/tmp/stash-scheduler-daemon.log`)
0.3.0	Added Timezone setting — Time of Day and Day of Week are now interpreted in any IANA timezone instead of always UTC
0.2.0	Added auto-start scripts (Linux/macOS/Windows/systemd), configurable identify timeout, strict scan→identify sequencing (identify skipped on scan failure/unknown/timeout), improved logging
0.1.0	Initial release

coffeemonkey · May 3, 2026, 7:35pm

Hi all - I wrote this as I have stash running on an Unraid docker environment and I’ve struggled getting filemonitor to work properly. At the end of the day, I don’t need immediate recognition of library changes, but ideally a simple scheduler to run a scan would be nice. So the tl;dr here is you can run this at basically a frequency of your choosing, to scan whichever folder(s) you want, with your custom settings, and run an identify step to follow. Let me know if you have questions, problems or enhancements. Thanks